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Students put finishing touches on fall plays
The stage in the auditorium of Loudoun County High School buzzes with a muted excitement as the cast of Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night's Dream" gathers on the stage to listen to drama teacher John Wells give instructions before the start of rehearsal.
Actors take their positions around the austere stage; others line themselves briefly in a row of seats that surrounds the performance space – where the audience will sit during performances. Then they scatter. A few watch and wait from under the stage.
A controlled chaos ensues – teenagers entering and exiting through the side doors and jumping onstage to recite their lines -- some speaking their parts with mastery, others still carrying around their scripts between scenes.
In less than two weeks, the time for practice and perfecting their roles will be over. On Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m., the house lights will dim and the 20-member cast must be ready to enter the stage in full costume, prepared to tackle the poetic and complicated language of Shakespeare.
The teenagers performing in this play will have an added test facing them. The rows of blue seats that fill the auditorium will remain empty. The stage will be fitted with 150 to 175 seats, so that the audience members can join the actors on the stage, sitting around a small platform in the center.
“The stage setup will be good for Shakespeare, but I’m still nervous,” said junior Caroline Hertz, 16, who is playing Helena, one of the lead female roles in the comedy. Hertz has much experience in performances, but never in this setup.
"It’s tough to not put your back to the audience because they will be everywhere,” she said. "It is also tough because the audience is so close and I’m afraid I'm going to start laughing."
This stage setup -- known as a "thrust" or 3/4 round set – was common during Shakespheare's time. The intimacy created by the smaller performance space benefits both the actors and the audience, said Wells, who has taught drama at the high school for 28 years. For the spectators, such close proximity “makes it a little easier for them to hear, for them to see, and for them to connect with what’s going on onstage,” Wells said.
And for the students, he said, “it is easier because they can be more natural without having to be big enough to broach the 30 foot chasm between you and any audience members.”
Junior Parker Chawick, 17, performing the role of Nick Bottom, is thrilled about having the audience members so close to the action.
“You actually get to interact with the audience,” he said. "You get to go up to them and talk with them directly, so it brings a whole new experience to the acting thing."
Student theater roundup
Loudoun County High School's drama department will present its performances of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” on Nov. 19, 20 and 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the school.
Other high school drama departments across the county also are preparing for their fall performances. Here are others coming up this month.
To keep up with school news, including upcoming winter and spring school play announcements, visit www.LoudounTimes.com each week and click on People/Community.
Broad Run
Broad Run High School’s theater department will perform two one-act comedy farces Nov. 12-14 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 2 p.m.
The first play, “Black Comedy” by Peter Shaffer, is a farce set in a London flat during an electrical blackout. It explores the effects of the blackout on a group of people who are all hiding things from each other.
The play is staged under a “reversed lighting” scheme; it opens on a darkened stage. Then when the “fuse” blows, the stage lights come up so the audience can see the action.
The actors, however, proceed as if they are now in the dark.
The second play, “The Real Inspector Hound” by Tom Stoppard, is a parody of the stereotypical parlor mystery in the style of Agatha Christie.
In the play, two critics who are watching a country house murder mystery become involved in the action, causing a series of events that parallel the play they are watching.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $8, students $6. Broad Run High School is at 21670 Ashburn Road in Ashburn. For details, contact Tim Willmot at 571-252-2305.
Briar Woods
Briar Woods High School's drama department will present “Robin Hood the Comedy” Nov. 19-21. Shows are at 7 p.m. each day, with a second performance Nov. 21 at 2 p.m.
In the play, Robin Hood and his merry men swashbuckle their way about Sherwood Forest and Nottingham in their crusade to battle the rich to protect the poor -- and in this production, to save the forest from environmental destruction.
Tickets are available at the door, $7 for adults and $5 for students. Receive $1 off admission when you bring a new or gently used young adult fiction book.
For more information, contact Marilyn Gilligan at 703-957-4400. Briar Woods is at 22525 Belmont Ridge Road in Ashburn.
Times-Mirror Staff Writer Elizabeth Coe contributed to this report.
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